everything--and that had he been in the station that it was expected
he should have held, they could not have escaped. The fact is they
came here destitute of everything, one of his ships had not 20 tons of
water, and none of them were in a condition to follow the enemy to a
distant point. Those insinuations, though they advance nothing
positive, are disgusting--the season of the year and the situation of
the fleet on such an errand were sufficient reasons. Let your
Politicians beware how they sour the minds of such men--men whose
lives are devoted to their country. If ever they accomplish that, your
State would not be worth half-a-crown.


And again, in December of that same year, on discovering that he,
personally, had been the subject of brutal slander, his indignation burst
forth:--


_December 29th, 1808._

I have just seen in the newspapers what I conceive to be exceedingly
mischievous, and to officers who are bearing the brunt and severities
of war, is exceedingly disgusting, when the whole nation is clamorous
against the convention of Lisbon and the treaty which Sir Chas. Cotton
made with the Russian Admiral about the ships, it is stated that _I_
had made a proposition of the same kind to the Russian Commander at
Trieste which had been rejected. There is not a syllable of truth in
it. _I_ have had no correspondence with Russia, nor anything happened
that could have given rise to such a conjecture. It must therefore be
sheer mischief. There are such diabolical spirits, who, incapable of
good, cannot rest inactive but fester the world with their malignant